1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of transmitting/receiving streaming data in a communication system including a server and a mobile communication terminal. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method of transmitting/receiving streaming data, to which a bit rate suitable for a mobile communication terminal is applied, in a communication system including a server and the mobile communication terminal, and the communication system therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the conventional 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), a mobile communication terminal transmits transport layer information and reception decoding buffer status information to a server by using a Real-time Transmission Control Protocol (RTCP). The server determines a bit rate suitable for data transmission/reception to/from the mobile communication terminal by referring to the received transport layer information and decoding buffer status information.
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional communication system for transmitting/receiving streaming data.
The conventional communication system includes a server 10 and a mobile communication terminal 20. The server 10 includes a bit rate determiner 12 for determining a bit rate corresponding to a data conversion rate used to convert multimedia data into streaming data, and a multimedia converter 14 for converting multimedia data into streaming data.
The server 10 converts multimedia data into streaming data by using a pre-stored bit rate, and transmits the streaming data to the mobile communication terminal 20. On receiving the streaming data, the mobile communication terminal 20 decodes and reproduces the streaming data, and feeds back to the server 10 streaming parameters, such as transport layer information and decoding buffer status information. The mobile communication terminal 20 detects the streaming parameters and transmits them to the server 10 whenever streaming data is transmitted from the server 10, or transmitted in a given cycle.
Such streaming parameters represent the communication environment between the server 10 and the mobile communication terminal 20. However, since the streaming parameters correspond only to incidental data communicated between the server 10 and the mobile communication terminal 20, the streaming parameters may waste bandwidth of a communication channel formed between the server 10 and the mobile communication terminal 20. Information fed back from the mobile communication terminal 20 to the server 10 is inevitably limited, and the accuracy of a bit rate determined by the server 10 decreases as the amount of information fed back from the mobile communication terminal 20 to the server 10 decreases.
In addition, since the streaming parameters used when the server 10 determines the bit rate only include information regarding data transmission between the server 10 and the mobile communication terminal 20, the server 10 determines the bit rate without regard to the reproduction quality in reproducing the streaming data in the mobile communication terminal 20, and thus it is difficult for the server 10 to determine a bit rate suitable for the reproduction environment of the mobile communication terminal 20.
Therefore, there is a need for a system and method for transmitting/receiving streaming data, which can effectively determine a bit rate so as to reduce the waste of a communication bandwidth in communication between a server and the a mobile communication terminal, and to improve reproduction quality when the mobile communication terminal reproduces streaming data.